I purchased my first lake house early last year. One of the unique aspects of this house was the tall garage ceilings. I decided to raise the header of the garage so I could back my trailer in tower-up. It was recently completed - except for paint - and wanted to share some pics.

I also threw in an amazing picture of Lake Tulloch taken by our own Grant West last weekend.

Okay, I know it's Photoshopped. There is no way a garage can look that clean. I mean, it looks great and would be a wonderful addition but there is nothing even hanging on the walls. Impossible. (well near my family anyway)

OK Funny story. We wanted come over and see the "New Garage" My wife and I came over via the GEM car (golf cart). We happened to creep up from behind on a older couple in a golf cart. They were bending their necks looking at the houses big time but didn't notice they were blocking us at all. They were going super slow and we just creept up from behind. They pull up in front of Jason's house and get out and start checking it out. They still don't notice we are right behind them. We get out of the cart and go knock on the Garage door. That's when they notice us and say "HI" . Jason open's the Garage Door and comes out and She introduces her self as the Head of the ACB (architectural control board) She proceeds to say. "Im so glad it came out so nice we ALMOST didn't want to approve it because we were not sure how it was going to look and You know how thing's like this go! ONCE SOMEONE DOES IT EVERYONE WILL WANT TO DO IT.

I was saying to my self WTF is this lady talking about. Look it's a LAKE HOUSE people buy a house here so they can use the lake with a BOAT and want to put them where they belong (in their OWN garage) if a guy want's to upgrade his house so he can put his boat away with out killing him self and increasing the value of his house in the process and in turn increasing Your value you should be All about it.

At this point I couldn't help myself , I said SO your the people with nothing better to do then drive around and decide weather to Approve or Deny things like this! O great I finally get to put a face on
it. I guess she thought I was joking because they both started laughing. I didn't want to rip into them anymore because Jason is planning on doing more work that might need approval.

It's strange because 90% of the NEW home's that surround the lake either can't accept a boat or you have to do some real creative parking to simply put your boat away. I think things like a tall header garage should be mandatory. If I was a person looking to buy a New home a house that had a garage that I could park my boat in with the tower up would be a HUGE sales point WHY would anyone try to block or deny a mod like this?

Anyways the garage look's great I'm glad your able to put your boat away the way it was intended to I wish I didnt have to fold my tower up and down each time.

Association boards and ACB's are a prime reason to avoid any neighbor hood that has them. The reason is this…people who live there are there for the status and not the usability of the lake and a boat. They aren't people like us. Many of the people who live in common interest neighborhoods are odd ducks. Then they get on the board and get a god complex. They really believe they are important, that they have some right to control YOUR life. They are the same people who will bitch about your wake and stereo.

The garage looks great, something I would definitely do. But with that said from an purely ascetic stand point I don't think it makes the house look better. Maybe if booth doors were that height, but with just the one it looks like it was an after thought. I bet there will be complaining from the blue hairs. My family owns a lawn/ snow maintenance company and about 90% of our accounts are common interest properties(houses, condo's, town homes), the stuff the owners and board members complain about never fails to amaze me. It has really made me hate associations and HOA's.

That is exactly what Grant said when he saw it "It doesn't make it look better". I agree ascetically not an improvement but a functional one. Took me a while to get used to it - now I don't even notice it.

Its totally about usability!! Thats what makes it awesome. I would love to be able to back mine in without dropping the tower.

I just hate the association aspect of it. Whether it looks better or not, you paid a lot of money for that house(I'm sure plenty), and you should be able to paint it pink and purple and concrete the grass if you like!! It certainly doesn't make it look bad. Nothing like living on the lake!! Why aren't you putting the boat on a lift? Thats when you will really love living on the lake!!

I love these people that say " I will never buy into a HOA" For many people owning a lake home is a dream, Not to many places that are lake front are NOT part of a HOA. So my question is Your not going to Live your life or a Dream because of some rules in a HOA??? seems strange. Yes they can be a nightmare IF you don't know what your getting your self into. Believe me I know what a PITA HOA's can be. Many issues can be avoided buy simply playing nice and playing by the rules. It helps if you know what your getting your self into before you buy into a HOA. Many people don't read the CC&R's & Don't ask people in the hood b4 they buy, Hey what's the HOA like? They move in and then act shocked when they discover the Blue hairs don't like you leaving your garbage cans out for a extra day or 2. Petty stuff.
I know the Aera well and had a good feel the HOA before moved in as well as the other 4 HOA's in the Aera. They each have their own set of rules and different vibe. Example if you like to have broken down cars in your front yard and don't like keeping your yard nice moving into a HOA is a bad Idea and they can be your worst nightmare. Jason knew up front what the process was in getting this project done before he started and yes he had to jump threw some extra hoops but in the end he got what he wanted and that's the name of the game. But yes sometimes boards can be a Nightmare.

Maybe out there in Cali. Here in Minnesota we have over 14,000 named lakes and very few have HOA's. If they do its only neighborhoods and around the Minneapolis/ St Paul metro area. If it was part of living on a lake here I guess I would personally have to reconsider. We are also in the process of looking for a lake house or lake land at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri and thats a huge money/ resort area and still there are just a few HOA neighborhoods. 90% of the lake is still no HOA's. We had a very poor experience with a town home HOA that my wife purchased 8 years before we were married and then we were going to turn into a rental. Ended up having what I would call a rogue board. I personally led a campaign to remove the board and won, but it was a nightmare. It pitted neighbors against each other and made for a very hostile environment. We sold the property when our market picked up last spring. I would do anything possible to avoid owning in an HOA again because of my personal experience. But I know not all are bad. I don't like the fact of allowing someone else to control my financial future or stability.

^^^ I hear you^^^ if you had a choice I bet 99% of people( myself included) would vote to not be part of a HOA. But here in CA most lake front property is part of a common intrest development or HOA so you don't have a choice when it comes to lake front property. There is no end to the story's of complete madness and HOA nightmares out there.

The house we bought last march is part of an hoa and i have no problems with it. We are a 1/2 mile from the corp of eng boat ramp and everybodys houses are kept in great shape and it is a wonderful neighborhood to live in. At first i didnt like the idea of people telling me what to do on my own property but i wasnt going to give up my dream home because of it.

Honestly if the HOA was really that concerned about aesthetics, they would've shot down those commercial style garage doors when the house was built and require residential doors. My dad has owned a garage door company for the last 20 years and installed a ton of those wide panel doors like that, but they honestly look out of place on a house. They look really good on commercial buildings that don't want the rolling steel (storage unit style rollups) doors. I know they aren't cheap, but your place would look pimp with a set of the carriage house style doors. Other than that, the lifted header looks fantastic and makes me wish that I had the room in my garage for mine. Guess I'll have to just wait on my shop to get built in the next couple years.

Jason I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with Ryan. You need to rip out that horrible comercial looking garage door and install a set of 20 thousand dollar carriage house style doors. In fact I'm sending in my official complaint to the ACB.

I remember earlier in the year when you were looking for ideas/opinions etc. and I always wondered how your place would turn out. You did a good job. Looks great. If you paid a contractor, I'm guessing around 5-6K total? You don't have to answer that.

Thanks guys - it looks so good in person. this is going to make my life so much easier, before I had to put ramps down because my driveway had sank so far that my prop guard would hit. You can see it in those earlier photos - originally thought I would just replace the front section but quickly recognized how bad the driveway was and had to tear it out. Then we decided to make it bigger and color it and stamp it. Went from simple to expensive - but worth it.

I can’t speak for phatboypimp’s place but I did some concrete work while in college and have a similar stamped patio. The color went on in 2 steps. The color is a powder dye and is applied over the whole slab and worked in with a bull nose float for the main base color. (pic 1). Generally there are 2 colors used and the second is applied and shaken out over the top of the smooth concrete before the stamp mats go down. (pic 2). It soaks in unevenly and dries with the extra powder on top. (pic 3) Following a curing period the excess is then hosed away leaving a multi tone that brings out the texture. The sprayer in the picture is most likely additional water to keep the concrete moist to accept the stamp or a curing agent. The 2 color stamp looks very good when a quality gloss coat sealer is applied, this brings out the richness of the color and gives the driveway some bling. It’s actually not that hard to do and the color dye is inexpensive.

I was saying to my self WTF is this lady talking about. Look it's a LAKE HOUSE people buy a house here so they can use the lake with a BOAT and want to put them where they belong (in their OWN garage) if a guy want's to upgrade his house so he can put his boat away with out killing him self and increasing the value of his house in the process and in turn increasing Your value you should be All about it.

It's strange because 90% of the NEW home's that surround the lake either can't accept a boat or you have to do some real creative parking to simply put your boat away. I think things like a tall header garage should be mandatory. If I was a person looking to buy a New home a house that had a garage that I could park my boat in with the tower up would be a HUGE sales point WHY would anyone try to block or deny a mod like this?

Some would block or deny a mod like that because the like the idea of living on a lake and looking at it, but no boating on it. Just like the tool's on the Willamette River here in Portland that killed a long stretch of the river for wakeboarder's and surfers because they said they ballast was killing their docks. I know the thread was on here a few years ago, and it mentioned that the Sheriffs boat created more of a wake than the wake boat did when they did the planned dock test. But alas they still passed the law because some people like living on that river without the boats. Make sense, right?

Whether we like it or not these boats getting bigger and bigger with more ballast creating bigger wakes/ waves will cause more damage. Whether you are talking to docks/ structures or beach erosion. There are more people with potentially damaged water front then people running weighted Wake boats. Plus water front isn't cheap so guess who has the money and the influence? I think we will continue to see more and more restricted/ banned areas.

Art - in my particular case it came colored from the mixer. Darrin is right - that was an option to us as well but since we had so much real estate to cover and get it stamped we went with pre-mix. What he is spraying on there is a solution to stop the cement from sticking to the stamps.

Nice work, I am planning a second garage in my back yard with two 10'x10' door so I can do the same. As for cosmetics, what about adding some architectural 'interest' above the standard door? I am thinking something like a large iron clock or similar...just a thought.

As for HOAs, I used to live in a neighborhood with a great one...all very reasonable people, I was on the board. Anyway, I found it very interesting how, as time went on and members changed, it become more intrusive. I spent years saying things like "We cannot single out a homeowner like that.", "Lets just go talk to them first." or "Come on, that's not right. We cannot do that!" This neighborhood was only 35 homes and 20 condos and they all seemed to listen right up to the end, but they were resisting more and more.

My new home is not under a HOA and that has some drawbacks too...our neighborhood is not nearly as well kept as my old one.